With measles in NC, UNC Health Infectious Disease expert urges everyone to check vaccination status

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (WNCN) — With a measles case now confirmed in North Carolina, doctors are urging people to make sure they’re vaccinated.

Evelyn Nelthropp, 83, still remembers getting measles back in the 1940s.

“I went through it fairly easily, but my brothers, it was rough on them– really, really rough – and my oldest one he had it the worst of all,” she recalled. “He was laid up for a good solid two-and-a-half, almost three weeks, really sick.”

Because she had the disease as a child, doctors say Nelthropp and most other people born before 1957 are immune to measles, but if you were born in 1957 or later, “Then it really comes down to did you get an MMR dose or not,” noted Dr. David Wohl, an infectious disease expert at UNC Health.

Dr. Wohl says it’s important to find out whether you’ve been vaccinated for measles with the MMR vaccine. According to the CDC, before 1989, most people received one dose, after 1989, two doses became standard.

“One MMR dose will get you about 93% protection; two will get you 97% or so,” Wohl explained.

According to Wohl, for some people, one dose is likely enough protection, but people at higher risk– like healthcare workers, people traveling internationally, college students, or people with immunocompromised family members– should make sure they’ve had two doses, and get another dose if they’ve only had one.

A blood test can also check whether you have antibodies against measles, but Wohl cautions the test isn’t a guarantee of immunity.

“If you don’t have those antibodies, I would be concerned that you are not immune,” Wohl said. “Demonstration of those antibodies probably means you’re in good shape and you do have protection. It’s not 100%.

He says if you’re in doubt about your immunity, it’s a good idea to get a shot.

“Almost everyone who’s getting infected with measles now, including some who are getting severely ill, are people who are not vaccinated, and measles is a bad infection even if you have a milder case,” Wohl explained, adding that the effects of measles can last long past the initial infection. “For about a year or two after you get measles, your immune system is not normal, so your immune system doesn’t react as well to other infections.”

Last week the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services announced the state’s first case of measles in 2025. NCDHHS says the infected child visited Forsyth and Guilford Counties.

According to the CDC, there are 37 states with at least one case of measles and more than 1,200 cases across the country. Dr. Wohl believes North Carolina’s first case of the year will not be its last.

“We’re going to get more measles cases, I’m sure,” he cautioned.

So many decades after she and her brothers caught measles, Nelthropp is sad to see that the illness, which once considered eliminated in the United States, is making people sick again.

“Some kids will die from it,” she said. “It’s that serious.”